Show GOLD HOW AL CHEMISTS USED TO MAKE IT IN THE OLDEN TIME it rought to mot of an unhappy falc if ono one failed to carry out oat an extravagant profilio Pr iio he lost ills III alfey an american turn a trick it has often been stated and with truth that modern chemistry is indebted for much of its knowledge to tile al chemists of old whose experiments for the purpose of making gold by artifice were certainly extraordinary to the utmost point of absurdity ome of them actually attempted to imprison tho the suns rays which they tried to calcine and powder tho the rays being supposed to consist of pure others sought to obtain alie philosophers stone which was wag to transmute all other metals into gold from honey sugar wine blood and even rainwater dead bodies were dug up from their graves and saltpeter was extracted from them to servo as an ingredient still others believed that gold grow from seed other metals merely furnishing f ur a fruitful soil in which tile tho yellow germs developed like plants in a work now rare called the ilis tory of ancient pharmacy it is mentioned that raymond nulty was said eaul to have transformed pounds of mercury into gold for the english Engli sli king edward III and that from this supply of the yellow metal the first rose nobles were coined the credibility of tho the story is somewhat diminished however by the circumstance that tho same monarch was soon after obliged to coin money from his own and tho the queens crown and from the golden vessels of churches and cloisters it is gravely recorded that the emperor frederic III on jan 15 1018 1118 at prague changed three pounds of mercury into two and one halt half pounds of gold by means of one grain of a lead powder given to him by it a man named Richt richthausen hausen ile he created this man baron of chaos and from the gold a medal was matlo mado which bore an inscription referring to its artificial ori gin this 1 medal was long S preserved in the vienna treasury in 17 1703 15 a saxon lieutenant named pay kull hull was taken prisoner by charles XII at warsaw and condemned condemn eil to death lie promised tomake to make worth of gold each year if his life were sp spared irad in the presence of witnesses chan changed ed six ounces of lead into gold by means of a tincture which contained antimony sulphur and saltpeter amon d other ingredients out of this gol gold 1 I medals were stamped but must have failed in subsequent attempts because he was afterward executed it if this goose had been able to lay real golden eggs it is to be presumed that he be would not have met with so melancholy a fate the business of manufacturing gold in in those days seems to have been an extremely dangerous one commonly bringing persons who pursued it tv it a violent death george donauer aronauer promised 0 to o transform thirty sue hundredweight hund red weight of iron into gold for tho the prince of wurtem berg lerg the prince detected a boy who biad been concealed in the tha laboratory in the act of putting gold in the crucible ile he thereupon ordered an iron gallows gallowa to be constructed from which the imprudent fakir was hanged banged in 1097 1697 two other gold goldin akers makers were likewise hanged from fro 1 n tins this same gallows at stuttgart in 1006 6 and 1738 respectively in ill I 1 G s 7 a man named entered the service of the marquis of brandenburg with the rank of colonel so ile soon won reputation is as a goldmaker and was given charge of tho the mint aud and mines subsequently la he was suspected of fraud and on his trial it was proved that he ha had stolen gold and silver from the treasury of the margrave for uso use in tho the deception ile ho was condemned to tobo bo hanged banged A quack named daniel supplied italian apothecaries with a wonderful gold powder called fur which was supposed to have astonishing medicinal value pretending that the art of compounding with other drugs was a known cisly oisly to himself he directed liis his patients not to permit the apothecaries to mix the ingredients of his prescriptions but to buy them including the and bring them to him for putting put ting together ue mixed the drugs omitting emitting the in which manner he succeeded I 1 in having restored restore to him the gold powder previously sold bold by him himat at a high price to the apothem caries the powder soon became famous sand and the quack finally offered to teach duko cosmos II 11 of florence the art of making gold the duke aid daniel ducats dubats for the secret secreta r and the ri swindler windIer fled to france with the worley money I 1 count cajetan in 1705 in iii the presence of frederick I 1 of prushia bia changed one pound of mercury nto into I 1 gold by means of a red tincture subsequently lie promised to mako make worth of gold in in six weeks but failing to keep his word wor d ho he was waa banged draped in gold leaf which became tile the customary method of dealing with al chemists the tribe of is ia not yet entirely extinct in 1880 an american named wise duped a member of the rohan family and a collateral descendant of the necklace cardinal whom cagliostro Cagl lostro deceived by pretending to make inake gold wise got a considerable sum of money from rohan and decamped de camped only a few days ago iho ho writer picked upa up i little on a bookstall in new york which contained several pages of advertisements of a substance for transmuting other metals into gold tho the price being beang only five dollars washington star |